I’ve never considered it before, but perhaps I should
Three letter domain names continue to go up in value, and I receive daily offers from China for DNW.com.
For the most part, this is a non-starter for me. After all, I use the domain name for this site.
But at what price would it make sense to reconsider selling it?
I don’t actually host the site on DNW.com. I use the domain name in a few ways:
1. A type-in shortcut to send people to DomainNameWire.com.
2. As a URL shortener.
3. Word-of-mouth. (I admit that being able to say find me at DNW.com is somewhat of a status symbol.)
The first two are valuable to me, but could also easily be replaced with DNW.co.
The downside to losing the domain for the shortener is the thousands of outstanding links that would longer resolve. That said, social media links have a short lifespan. I also haven’t used the shortener lately because WordPress’ JetPack plugin disabled third party services, at least temporarily.
What would you do if you were in my shoes? How important do you think the DNW.com domain name is to Domain Name Wire.
I would say In the ballpark of 75k. At least from a liquid standpoint.
Domains ending in “W” carry a certain value in China.
But it is a three letter .com so if you want to sell I would ask for six figures and settle for less.
If I were you I wouldn’t wait for a price, I’d wait for an age. I’d sell it when I’m 60 and ready to retire.
I have some names that are related to my main business and forward to my main business as well. Just rather let them gain value and keep them, since they are related to my main business. You have a great domain that you can never lose in a URDP. Keep it.
You should not sell it for less than $100k. dnw.co? Yuck!
Well, if you know about it, dnw.co is actually a faster way to get to the site than dnw.com 🙂
On my phone I would type DNW + .com button + backspace and enter
That’s what I do to get to .co sites
Oh, that’s true.
I use dnw.com as a navigation shortcut, but I really don’t see it as a major asset to the overall value of DomainNameWire as a site. That comes from your content.
6-figures would be very tempting if it were mine.
If you end up selling, you might want to rework your logo without using “DNW.”
As you don’t host on DNW.com, not as important as DomainNameWire.com
I stumbled onto the fact you had DNW.com by accident (misstype when my mobile hiccuped. But DomainNameWire.com always shows on a google search.
However, your having DNW.com does lend a level of legitimacy.
So your question really should be, should you consider the option of selling OR make better use of it. Only you can say
I agree, nothing less than six figures would make it interesting. That wipes out most investors at this point.
Since you will have to replace your license plate, might as well replace your car, and sell for price that will get you the car that you always wanted.
That’s a great way to rationalize a new car!
What do you think the current value of DNW.com is?
Estibot places the value at $166 k USD http://www.estibot.com/appraise.php?a=appraisal&k=944851e8a14b1e6bb7e112373a3adcd9&domain=dnw.com
Value? Hard to say. I think end users will pay six figures. I wonder if the investor market will get there.
The domain name will surely continue to increase in value. I wouldn’t it sell for less than 500k.
When I go to Google News and type in “domain names”, Domain Name Wire comes up in the second, fourth, and sixth slots. That’s pretty solid domination. I think your brand equity and content are a completely separate entity and value … apart from DNW.com.
While DNW.com is obviously very nice, a six-figure offer might be good to pocket, and I don’t think it would in any way diminish the value or brand integrity of Domain Name Wire. Andrew, you did an excellent job of establishing your site as a leader long before utilizing DNW.
It’s something I’ve thought about. Every time I write “DNW” instead of “DomainNameWire”, I question whether that mention or link will remain functional in the future.
$250K sell it
Chinese are not buying domains for the love of domains, they are a loop hole, so they can buy homes in other countries, before all this goes away, you should seriously consider it.
Right now you can probably get $60k – $80k if you feel motivated to sell quickly. To maximize your ROI, however, you can place it up for auction and let interest brew. The second method has a six figure potential.
I would not worry about existing URL forwards, presumably made for twitter use, very little traffic originates there as opposed to Google archived URLs.
What are considered the most valuable characters? I have heard no vowels are better (I don’t know the truth in that,) but are there any letters that are considered better than others?
DoNaWi.com is available… 🙂
Are creditors beating down your door like our friend to the North? Get a bid from Michael Berkens. 🙂
Nope
I would sell it at whatever the market price is. I did not even know you owned it. I don’t think you even need to change your logo. Most companies don’t own the 3 letter version of their name, so I never assumed you did.
Incorporate the domain and sell a % and retain partial ownership.
Feel free to submit it in the Namescon.com auction
Andrew, I am at $111k on BNK.com presently and still not sure when to pull the trigger. One of those things where you turn around in 2-3 years and a good LLL is $200k+++. I wouldn’t even consider anything under $150k for DNW.com atm.
I mean their option is buying up CRAP at $40k-$80k.
I definitely wouldn’t consider anything below that.
>>> DNW.COM >>> — #1- Always Careful on Temptation — #2 – You Have a Super Great Asset for You and Your Business — #3 – One incredibly good investment — #4 – Sky is the limit on this one and — $250K Plus — should be the Minimum….
Andrew,
Have you noticed dnw.net is listed on GD Auctions for $4,800?
Do you think that’s a fair price for the .net?
I hadn’t noticed that. According to NameBio, that’s a bit high for a three letter .net.
End user on .net is a different story but I know my LLL .net have seen a lot of offers as late from China. Anywhere from $500-$2000. DNW.net to us is a $1k+ name.
That’s in line with what I’m seeing on NameBio
Dnw = Do not wait. Sell it off, six figure minimum.
Vacation home.
Andrew. I have a three letter domain that I’m looking to unload. Have several offers already in hand, but not as high as what other commenters are quoting. Is there a particular auction process you should suggest for such a domain? What’s my best course of action here? Thanks in advance.
Daniel,
The #s being quoted here are higher than what you can probably expect right now. You can see public three letter sales data at sites like DNSalePrice.com and NameBio.com.
I used it to get to the site today. But I saw it in the bottom of the website DNW and figured I would see if you had it. I then looked it up on NameBio to see what it cost. For whatever crazy reason, the estibot value posted above has drastically decreased. Very strange, but I would say a solid 100K and you should give it up and make your profits. When you have a good solid brand, and people know your site; they don’t really care what your domain name is anymore. Once you’ve built the following, everything else is pretty much in bag. Usually you need the name to make your place, but when you’ve got your place, that is a whole different position to be in.